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Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Seven questions... with Johnny Rose (@98rosjon)

Johnny is an awesome chap that I know from Twitter. I think he is very, very funny... and very, very driven. Seriously, he should bottle his drive and sell it. He's overcome some big obstacles and is currently looking for "a proper job".

I'm proud to call him a mate.

I caught up with him on email... and asked him my seven questions.

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1) Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Jonny Rose and work in social media for a property company in Central London. As well as this, I blog extensively on Christianity, New Media and my local community (Croydon). I also work at my parents' nursery. When I say 'work', I mean impressing the kitchen staff with my dance moves and playing with stuffed animals.

2) What are you working on at the moment?
I'm working on The Purley 2.0 Project which is a hyper-local initiative of mine to build a stronger and more sociable Twitter community. I've been orchestrating tweet-ups with local Tweeters and will be doing workshops in the summer to get more newbies involved. At this very moment, I'm preparing for the Croydon Twestival which will be held in Purley on March 24th and all proceeds will be going to the lovely people at South East Cancer Help Centre.

3) Who inspires you?

- Name an artist who has inspired you.
The people who inspire me are almost always Christians who are excelling in a particular capacity. I also occasionally flirt with the idea of getting a Malcolm X picture framed above my desk.

- Name place that has inspired you.
One place that definitely inspires me is Jamaica - I'm doing everything I can to retire out there by the time I'm 30!

- Name some "thing" that has inspired you.
One "thing" that inspires me is the blogosphere. I can't get enough of blogs. Reading a great blog can be equally as rewarding as eating a delicious meal.

4) What drives you to do what you do?
I'm driven by the Gospel and the Great Commission ("To go and make disciples"). That's not to say that I do it well (or even all the time!), but - ultimately - trying to make people see how amazing Christ is and what He's done for them so that they can have a relationship with God is the undercurrent of everything I do. That...and a cold, hard lust for power and money.

5) What values do you wish your creativity to express?
Hopefully my creativity conveys the importance of having a sense of humour and seeing the value in not taking things too seriously all the time. With my blog - especially the Purley 2.0 stuff - I'm trying to show people the benefits of socially investing in our local community, looking out for the vulnerable or lonely, encouraging altruism and charity and essentially "loving one another as ourselves".

6) What role does community play in what you do?
Community is a huge part of what I do - especially my local community. Everything I'm doing at the moment professionally (in the social media realm) is so that I can develop the skills needed to empower, connect and build up people in my immediate area. Communities are becoming increasingly fragmented and people no longer know their next-door neighbour nor do they meet together *en masse* in local clubs anymore. It's becoming more and more important in my mind to do everything we can to sustain our local communities.

The other community that has a huge part in my life is church. Having fellowship with other Christians is a truly invigorating and inspiring experience and meeting up frequently gives me the strength and vision to do what I'm doing.

7) What is next for what you do?
I have lots of plans for the future (most of them legal) but the main one at the moment is to move from freelancing to a proper job at a PR/Social Media agency in London where I can be trained in the dark arts of the retweet. After that? Might just become Prime Minister for a laugh.